Bernard Ingham: Osborne comes of age as the true heir to Thatcher’s economic legacy

They – and David Cameron’s transformation into a full-blooded Tory – were all wonderful to behold during the party conferences.

But none had remotely the significance of a single sentence uttered by Chancellor George Osborne who, for me, is the 
true heir to Margaret Thatcher. I am aware that this accolade will do nothing for his reputation across whole swathes of this sour nation.

But that is his distinction. He has dared to be a Daniel. More important, like Thatcher, he looks like winning through after sticking with Plan A. We may have a long way to go before growth transforms Britain, but thanks to him we are at least on the right road.

He also intends to keep us on it. He said – and this is the crucial sentence – “When we’ve dealt with Labour’s deficit, we will have a surplus in good times as insurance against difficult times ahead”. It’s known as fixing the roof when the sun shines.

Eureka!

Now, before I throw any more caps over the windmill, let me be clear. In my view, Osborne, possibly because of Liberal Democrat influence, did 
not cut spending enough when the coalition took office in 2010. He may have slashed the budget deficit by £36bn but we still have £120bn round our necks.

Even with strong growth, that is going to take some eliminating over the next seven years. It is a measure both of the pernicious legacy left by the incontinent Gordon Brown and of Osborne’s constancy at the Treasury. After his performance over the last three years, I think we can reasonably assume he means what he says in aiming to get us – and keep us – in the black

That being so, let us rejoice, to coin a phrase. We have a Chancellor who measures up to the needs of the time. We need him to stay where he is until he is running a surplus and can guarantee that his successor will do so, too.

This may sound horribly unexciting. Treading the path of virtue usually is. But too many times over the past 40 years our economy has been damaged by false economics: for example, the rigid, Gosplan-style control of prices, dividends and incomes after Ted Heath’s U-turn in the 1970s; Nigel Lawson’s losing control of inflation with his clever dick shadowing of the D-Mark in the 1980s; and Brown’s delusion, aided and abetted by Miliband and Ed Balls, that he had abolished boom and bust.

In the end, there is only one way to manage a nation’s affairs: it is how the careful housewife runs her home.

This was – and remains – anathema to the likes of the 364 economists who forecast Thatcher would damage the British economy beyond repair in the early 1980s.

But economies are too important to be left to the whims of economists. They should be run by men or women with a balanced view of the world, inordinate common sense, a real strength of purpose and a willingness consistently to do the right thing for the sake of the people.

There is one other thing to commend Osborne. He has his feet on the ground over global warming. He sees no reason why Britain should disadvantage its industry or people by getting ahead of the pack in suppressing carbon dioxide – as if our noble but damaging example would have the slightest influence on the likes of China and India.

I expect Osborne to look with an ever more jaundiced eye at subsidies for wind, waves, tides, biomass or solar power – indeed, for any source of energy that does not give value for money.

Unfortunately, nothing much will happen so long as the Lib Dems are in coalition.

Once freed of their expensive idealism, I would expect Osborne to cut back on the monumental waste of renewables subsidies and other expensive schemes supposedly combating global warming.

That, at a stroke, would reduce fuel bills by eliminating costs – another £425 by 2020, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign group – instead of storing them up under Miliband’s proposed price freeze.

You can have all the fun of the fair at party conferences. But once they are over you need safe hands to run the country.

We have found a pair. Let’s 
stick with them. They point the way to prosperity for all who want to improve their standard of living.